Comments on: How Many Office Buildings Will Volunteer to Go Bike-Friendly?

By: David Moskovitz

David Moskovitz — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 15:49:03 +0000

It ain't "storage," it's "parking." A small point, but it helps non-bike folks remember that bikes are vehicles, not toys or sports equipment.

By: gecko

gecko — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 17:15:14 +0000

This is good stuff! Extensive bike parking is part of stopping a lot of the bad habits making cycling inconvenient in New York City and is probably about giving people the permission to do the right thing as encouraged by "seatbelt" and "scoop the poop" laws and ordinances. They should be put in place as soon as possible and likely require little fanfare. Hopefully, the "big one" will be a New York class public bike system with more than 100,000 rental bikes. Since rental bikes are used about 5 to 12 times daily in public bike systems this will be a major improvement. Allowing people to enroll in the system using their own bikes for various benefits such as discounts (potentially including public and private healthclubs), attended bike parking, integration with transit, education, and government, etc. will further accelerate the broad transformative change this system will have.

By: JK

JK — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 19:59:42 +0000

T.A. is regularly contacted by businesses who want bike access but are refused by their land lords. Better bike access is among the reasons that some IT businesses and NGOs locate in pre-war loft spaces. This said, most workplaces, including in class A buildings, have garbage/recycling and supply areas easily outfitted as bike parking.

Ben's article got this right. A lot of the opposition is sociological. The big real estate owners tend to be old guys who associate bikes with childhood and bike messengers.

By: Larry Littlefield

Larry Littlefield — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 19:46:36 +0000

"Business owners who lease work space often have no problem allowing their employees to bring their bikes in." I don't think that's true of my business. A former employee was leaving his bike in the supply room, and was told to stop. In fact, I don't think that's been true anywhere I've worked, public or private. My wife's employer has a large loading area, with a bike rack in back, but I doubt bicycles would be allowed in cublicles. Perhaps businesses are just hiding behind the landlords. I believe a separate space would need to be provided. That would be better anyway, particularly when bicycles were wet from the rain.

By: JK

JK — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 19:36:13 +0000

Larry, you are confusing the issue here. Business owners who lease work space often have no problem allowing their employees to bring their bikes in. These business owners pay the rent for the space occupied by the bikes. It's the building owners --- who pay nothing to accommodate bicycles --- who are opposed. Most buildings which allow bikes only allow them on freight elevators. So, the issue of bikes getting people in expensive suits dirty isn't real. Real issues include bikes adding to freight elevator work loads and what to do about bikes during off-hours. The legislation should be clarified to make it completely clear that it requires owners to allow tenants to bring bikes into their leased spaces --- not that it requires owners to build common parking.

By: Air

Air — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 18:35:16 +0000

NYU doesn't allow folding bikes in at all - it would seem that this bill would help that. It's completely ridiculous that they don't, even for faculty with their own offices.

By: Larry Littlefield

Larry Littlefield — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 18:27:01 +0000

I wouldn't dismiss the obstacles. Most cubicles don't have a place for a bike, so unless there is empty cellar space, you are talking about giving up leasable square footage for a common storage area.

In addition, whatever floor that area is on will be less attrative to tenants who don't want bikes coming in from the rain and dripping on the floor.

The question is, would giving up some space to bikes make the rest of the space more valuable? If there was ever a time when this ratio might work, it is during the coming deep recession, especially if a small charge could be assessed for the parkers.

Figure the least desirable second floor space leasing at $60 psf per year, and ten square feet per locked bike (space occupied and circulation). That's an annual cost of $50 per month per bike parking space, to be charged or absorbed by the landlord. If that space would otherwise go begging, that's a different story.